Of Flowers and Toerags
by nargles lurk in the mistletoe
Summary: Lily Evans is a muggle-born witch growing up in the midst of a wizarding war that targets muggles and muggleborns especially. Follow her story through seven years of school as she ventures through her teenage years and struggles with friendship, family, romance, magic, and staying true to herself.
1. Chapter 1

The asphalt of the playground seemed so far below me as I swung back and forth on the rickety old swing set. My fingers gripped the metal links and strands of my fiery hair flew in my face.

"I'm going to do it now! I'm going to jump!" I announced.

"Lily, don't do it!" cried my sister, Petunia, whom I called Tuney. Ignoring her shouts of protest, I released the swing's chain and leapt. I let the wind catch me and soared.

My feet hit the ground, as daintily as a feather would land when dropped.

Tuney stopped her swing and ran to my side. "Mummy told you not to!" she scolded. "Mummy said you weren't allowed!"

"But I'm fine," I argued. Then I remembered the skill I had discovered the previous day. Tuney simply had to watch. I knew she would be impressed, so I strode to the edge of the playground, picking up a flower from beneath a bush. "Tuney, look at this. Watch what I can do."

I placed the flower on my palm and held it out towards my sister. The petals opened and closed repeatedly in perfect synchronization.

"Stop it!" she shrieked, as if it was painful to behold.

"It's not hurting you," I told her, but I dropped the flower anyways. I didn't like to see her upset.

"It's not right. How do you do it?"

"It's obvious, isn't it?" came a voice from behind the bush. A thin black-haired boy stepped out. He was pale and oddly dressed. Tuney screamed and retreated to the other end of the playground, causing him to blush. But I, ever the curious one, stayed put.

"What's obvious?"

"I know what you are," he said. To me, this sounded like the sort of thing one would say to someone whose deepest, darkest secrets they had discovered, but I didn't have any secrets, except that my neighbor and I had spent our allowances to buy pet mice together and were were keeping them in her basement. But he couldn't possibly have been talking about that.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"You're... you're a witch," he said cautiously.

I was offended. I knew a "witch" was someone who was evil and people often used it as an insult. A girl called Tuney a witch at school once. She came home crying.

"_That's_ not a very nice thing to say to somebody!" I told him. I ran back to Tuney. But the strange boy persisted.

"No!" he yelled, rushing after me. "You _are._ You _are_ a witch. I've been watching you for a while. But there's nothing wrong with that. My mum's one, and I'm a wizard."

He had been _watching_ me?

Tuney snickered. "Wizard! I know who _you_ are. You're that Snape boy! They live down on Spinner's End by the river," she told me, disgust dripping from every word. She turned back to him. "Why have you been spying on us?"

The Snape boy had found a sudden fascination with his shoes. "Haven't been spying," he mumbled. "Wouldn't spy on _you_, anyway. _You're _a muggle." He said it with the contempt that most people might say _witch._

"Lily, come on, we're leaving!" She declared. We marched away, beginning the long walk home from the park.

The Evans house, a two-story brick building with a white porch and a flower garden, was located on Springcrest Lane in Little Whinging. My sister and I stepped through the front door and promptly removed our muddy shoes. Our mother was in the kitchen, a flowered apron over her plaid dress.

"Hi, girls. Do you want a snack?"

We informed her that we did indeed want a snack, so she toasted some slices of bread and spread her homemade raspberry preserves on them. As we sat down to eat, she asked us why we were home so early.

Tuney had obviously been dying to tell her of our run-in with the Snape boy. She told the story, speaking at so fast a pace that Mother had to request multiple times that she slow down.

"That is quite odd," she remarked.

The next day, a letter arrived in the mail addressed to me. I tore open the envelope with excitement. I almost never got mail. The letter read:

Dear Miss Evans,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.  
Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall  
Deputy Headmistress

_Witchcraft?_ This couldn't be a coincidence. I had to speak to the Snape boy.


	2. Chapter 2

I kept the letter hidden for the rest of the night. I was scared of how my parents might react, and even more than that, of how I _knew_ Tuney would react. She would call me a freak. She would shun me for the rest of my life.

The next day, I woke up at five thirty a.m., before anyone else was awake. On a Sunday morning, my parents would sleep for three more hours. And, if I was lucky, so would Tuney. Throwing on a simple outfit and a light jacket, I stepped outside into the cool morning air. I began the walk to Spinner's End as a leisurely stroll, but before long the eagerness to learn who, or what, I really was and the fear of my parents waking up while I was gone became overwhelming, and I ran the last third of the way.

The door of the sad, misshapen little house creaked open to reveal a tall woman peering down at me. Her hair was drawn back from her face in a sloppy bun, and it was apparent she had been busy doing housework, even in the early hours of the morning.

"Are you a friend of Severus's?" she questioned.

_Not really. _"Yes ma'am," I told her.

She nodded and turned back to the house. "Sev? " I heard her call as she marched down the hall, leaving me standing awkwardly on the porch. She hadn't invited me inside, as most people would have. But I knew to mind my manners and not to walk into a house uninvited, so I stayed put.

"Severus Snape, you get out here this minute and come greet your guest!"

A moment later, she returned to the door, a half-awake Severus trailing behind her. As he saw me, the sleepy look in his eyes turned to a look of surprise, then one of terror. I suppose our last meeting had been less than pleasant...

"Why don't you come inside, dear-"

"No," Severus interrupted his mother. His tone was more severe than he had intended, and Mrs. Snape shrinked back. He winced. "I mean, we'll go outside. It's more fun outside, right, Lily?"

I nodded slowly, and Severus stepped out onto the porch. His mother disappeared back into the house, closing the door behind her. Then Severus turned back to me.

"What do you want?" he demanded.

"You were right," I said quietly. His face softened.

"About...?"

"That I'm... I'm a witch," I reminded him.

He glanced behind him as if to see whether anyone was watching. I resisted the urge to remind him that it was Sunday morning and no one was awake yet.

"Come with me." He took my hand and led me down the cobblestone street and into the wooded area along the riverbank at the edge of his town. We trekked through the forest, meandering through the dense trees until we reached an open clearing. The trees had dispersed around the hollow, completely vanishing when they reached the side closest to the river. Tall willows hung over the area, and the water, although altered ever so slightly by the mud of the banks, was primarily a deep shade of sapphire.

I drew in a breath and looked to Severus. "What is this place?"

He shrugged. "My hideout." Another dismissive response. This Snape boy wasn't the most talkative character. "Come on, sit with me."

At this he pulled me into the shade under a willow's branches and dropped to the ground. I dusted off a spot next to him and sat.

"Well? What do you want to know?" he asked.

"What do I want to know?" I leapt back to my feet. "I'll tell you what I want to know. I _want to know _what I am. I _want to know _what that letter means. I _want to know _why I'm a witch, why you're a wizard, why Tuney's not, and how you're so sure. I _want to know _what sort of nut job wizard would choose to name a school, of all things, after a skin affliction of _pigs_, I _want to know_-"

"Stop it! I'll tell you! I was looking for a bit more general of an explanation, but whatever suits your fancy, I s'pose," he huffed.

I sat back down. "Fine then. Tell me."


End file.
